Budapest Phone Use

In our intro to Budapest phone usewe try to answer tourists’ frequently asked questions like

Budapest phone box - photo by fofie57

Budapest phone box – photo by fofie57

Needless to say mobile phone roaming costs are still unfortunately outrageously high (except for visitors from EU countries, as the roaming charges have been recently cancelled within the EU), so don’t forget to deactivate roaming services if you don’t want to pay a lot of money for using your cell phone in Budapest, Hungary. Using an unlocked phone with a locally purchased SIM card is a cheap and viable option to save some money on local calls.

You would most probably wish to use your phone to call Budapest taxis as one of the most important don’ts in Budapest is ‘Don’t hail down a taxi in the streets unless you want to get ripped off.’ This warning has been still alive and kicking ever since the iron curtain fell in 1989.

There are very few phone booths in Budapest, with the strong and dynamic mobile industry development all over the world. Nevertheless, if you should need one, many of them look like the one in the picture on the left. Some touristy places have functioning public phone booths, although most of them seem tiny deserted time capsules.

Last updated: May, 2018